Chapter 6: Complicated Dreaming

"However..." Aeolia paused, "I think we'll give them time to improve."

The pale, red-eyed(at this angle Luke could confirm they were red with the sun at their back.) looked at his leader with brief shock."Very well. When shall we have our battle then?"

Aeolia glanced back at her teammate, "Friday is an adequate date." she looked back at Luke who was holding his breath in out of fear, like she was a predator ready to devour him the moment he made any sudden movements. "What do you think? Friday is plenty of time to get your act together," she inched closer, her face stopping only a foot from his own. "Don't you think?"

Luke felt a chill down his back. If there was any blood in his face it had drained from it at that moment. He wanted to say no. He wanted to tell her that he didn't mean to provoke her team. He wanted to strangle Tytus for getting him in this situation.

Instead he nodded slowly in agreement.

"Very well... we've got a match then." With that done, she and her team walked off.

Mentally, he slapped himself in the forehead. 'Why did I do that?! What have I done?!'

"Wonderful... just wonderful..." Deborah rolled her eyes and shook her head. "One guy summons the most feared team in all of Inkopolis and the other one agrees to a witch's terms with no opposition."

Nova glared at her, "Well at least he said something. I didn't see you step in to help."

Deborah turned to Nova, rage beginning to boil. "That's not the point, Dumbass! He put us in a situation where we will get brutally murdered by a pro team!"

Had Brodie not been ready to keep Nova from tearing Deborah apart, things would have gone downhill from there.

Deborah kept herself away from Nova, and, much to Luke's shock, latched onto him for protection.

Tytus looked at the setting sun. "C'mon Deborah it's getting' late and I don't like bein' out at night."

Deborah shot Tytus a look that immediately told him to keep his mouth shut for the reminder of the day.

"Let's get going then." Deborah looked at Luke with capricious interest then turned around to leave along with Tytus to the train station.

"Well this day's been... interesting to say the least." Brodie settled on saying. "Well, it was nice meeting you guys so I guess we'll meet up to discuss on Monday what we'll do."

Felicia came out of the tower after a while with Luke's luggage in tow.

"Ready to go Luke?" she asked

He turned around to face her and replied to her."Alright just give me a second sis."

In a low voice, Luke said, "Well talk later. I don't want my sis to know I put myself in a stupid situation she'll likely make fun of me for being so stupid."

He remembered the serious look she gave the opposition this evening. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of that look.

They went their separate ways, Nov a and Brodie went to the train station and Luke followed his sister through the alleys and streets to her apartment.

When the siblings got to room 886 of the Dreamy Shoals apartment building, Luke was extremely sore. He wanted nothing but to go to sleep.

"What's wrong with you?" Felicia asked, nonchalantly opening the door one she found her keycard. Apparently the day hadn't exhausted her like it did him.

"Jus' tire..." Luke said begging to nod off.

"You don't want any food?" Luke perked up a bit a the word "food" and went in to eat and rest.

The apartment was fairly spacious. The main living room had a 40 inch flatscreen television and a large sofa. There were a couple of lamps for illuminating the corners of the room as well as a nice little balcony on the opposite side of the entryway. A small offshoot to the right was where the kitchen was located, Luke could primarily tell because their was the smell of sardines coming from it.

Felicia walked in and sniffed the fishy smell, "Sorry 'bout the smell, had a small snack before I came and got you." She went into the kitchen while Luke went to the sofa and relaxed.

"Here." Luke looked up from his resting position to see Felicia with a plate of crab pizza in her hand. A moment later, Felicia sat besides him with her own slice. "So why ya lookin' for this chick anyways?" she asked abruptly, making Luke turn his head sharply away from the balcony window in surprise. "Got the hots for her or somethin'?"

He raised a brow. "I thought I told you?"

She shrugged and replied, "Guess I forgot."

"Well she keeps staring at me."

Felicia gave him a boorish look, "Your point?"

Luke glared back at his sister's insensitive words. "It's off-putting when she does it and I want her to stop." "So your gonna ask politely and hope she stops looking at you." she began to chuckle in some form of amusement when he nodded yes.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Felicia became dead serious suddenly, freezing him in place,"You're being quite naïve out here." she said, frost creeping into her voice, "This isn't home, so stop treating everything you see as a hide or greet situation. Some inklings won't stop just because you ask nicely, alright?" she then viciously tore into her pizza.

'Why is she so unstable?' Luke asked himself. 'It's almost as if she was a different person entirely.'

As Luke had known her, Felicia always was happy and dramatic at times, but now he wasn't so sure that she had changed for the better.

After Luke had eaten his slice of pizza, he wordlessly grabbed his bags from near the entryway and dragged it closer to hallway left of the living room. He felt a tap on his shoulder and jolted away from the touch only see Felicia with an apologetic look on her face.

"Look I'm sorry if I seemed if I was being... snappy. I have a lot on my mind ,and I just don't want anything bad happening to the team if worse comes to worse." she looked down at her feet. "I... guess I've been keeping it in for too long..."

Luke suddenly felt pity and a tad bit guilty for his sister's erratic mood swings and turned around with a small smile.

"It's okay. I'll try not to be an idiot." Felicia gave a small smile and tousled his tentacles a bit before heading into her room on the right of the hallway.

"Your room's at the end of the hallway, Night Luke!" she called out as he made his way to his room.

_
/ \

11:49 at night...

Felicia called somebody up on her phone, she started talking once she had connected, "Hey, its me, Felicia."

A relaxed voice yet distorted voice replied, "How are you doing Miss Vernon..."

"Ha ha funny..." she said with a sarcastic tone. "I thought we established we use the nickname I ask to be called because of the fact you have zero people skills."

"Relax Feli, I'm just messing around with you." The voice said becoming more casual.

Felicia sighed, smiling to herself. "And there's that. You still messing around with the voice filters on your phone?"

The voice chuckled, "Oh yes, I'm enjoying the voice filter quite a lot... I only use it when I get a call from you guys, don't want to freak people out, but enough of that." The caller's voice became serious. "You called me for a reason."

"It's Koray. I met up with him today and wiped the floor with him."

"So?" The voice said. "There's more than one reason that you're my second-in-command."

"Not sure if my brother and his friends are just that good or Koray's teammates weren't all they were cracked up to be but either way he wasn't doing to well according to the final score of the match."

"Let me guess, you want me to look into the matter and help lift him out of the gutters."

Felicia nodded as if the recipient of her call were there. "Yes, if you can. I know your taking care of family too."

"Very well, I'll talk to him." The voice shifted, Felicia knew what that meant.

"Ok, what do you want in exchange?" she said with exasperation.

"Me?" A chuckle came out. "I don't want anything dear Feli."

"Cut the carp!" She hissed, "I know you. Not even for your team, you would give something for free."

A sigh came out, Felicia knew her recipient had finally dropped the faҫade out of boredom,"Very well Feli, if you insist...tell me about your visiting brother. That's a cheap price, is it not?"

Felicia squinted her eyes, "How did you know I have a brother visiting. I just told you it was family coming over."

"I... had a lucky guess..."

Putting her suspicion aside, she fed her friend information of her brother that night.

Luuuke...

Luuuke...

With a start, Luke woke up, his body floating in the same stream he was in when he dreamed inside the train this morning. This time he tried moving again. When he did start moving, he began to try to swim to shore when he spotted a large, furry, black, dog-like creature staring at him. He recalled that the internet called them wolves and that very few survived the rising sea levels. It stared at him with piercing yellow eyes, following his movements as he was pulled downstream by the river.

Trying his best, he pushed the farther downstream towards the grand tree the river was leading him down to, trying to get to shore without being caught. The wolf quickened its pace, its gait befitting of a skilled hunter. He looked back, and saw it come at him with sharp fangs and claws.

Nen koro, nen koro, nen koro ni...

Nen koro, nen koro, nen koro ni...

Luke felt terror fill him as the swamp was filled with a woman's voice. It was calm yet sad but the message it was carrying filled him with dread for an unknown reason. His heart beat faster as he felt the wolf behind him panting heavily, hearing it snap its jaws close to his head trying to catch him.

Naku ko wa ooago tori ni kuru...

Karada gotsugotsu, Kiba gizagiza...

Naku ko wa ooago tori ni kuru...

Naku ko wa dokoja ago tori ni kuru..

Tears welled up in Luke's eyes as his dread increased. He could only stifle his screams when the wolf managed to get a grip on his leg. It tightened its vicing jaws on his leg before yanking him out of the water and banging his body onto a nearby rock on the shore. He tried to scream out from the intense pain he was in but his body wasn't working for him anymore, a numb sensation completely taking his body.

'It's just a dream...it' just a dream...' he kept thinking over and over. Even as he felt something wet dripping onto his neck. Even as his captor's claws came down on his chest. Even as yellow eyes stared into his soul.

Even as he saw quick jaws surround his neck before his eyes.

It... begins...

Luke's eyes snapped open. He sat up quickly looking around to see that he was in the blank room Felicia had gave him. He reached for the back of his head and moved it over his neck before looking at it, being relieved when there wasn't anything on it.

"That balm worked wonders, but I think it might have given me a bad dream." he mumbled to himself.

As he had said, the balm helped his body feel as good as new during his sleep, he felt he could do some marathon running in his condition.

He looked at the door. 'Oh yeah, I have to meet up with the guys to discuss plans.'

With that he hopped out of bed, not noticing the abyssal blue stain on his pillow.


YEAH! TRIPLE WINNER OF SPLATFEST AND I'M FEELIN' SO PROUD!(I guess you could say I'M REALLY FEELING IT!*brick'd*)

Anyways, things are beginning to heat up with Luke and company and he seems to be having something of a reoccurring dream. What could it all mean? I'll say that I cliffhanged this so that you guys can try and guess what direction this is going in. Plus a short chapter on occasion isn't a bad thing either.

Also the voice in Luke's dream was singing a small tune. I'll give you an internet cookie if you can guess where it's from. Here's a hint: Dinosaurs.